A close friend of mine shared these three ideas with me after he attended an accounting seminar. The more I think about these principles the more powerful they have become in my path toward success.
Imagine for a moment standing on a three legged stool with one weak and faulty leg that crumbles when you are reaching high over your head bringing down a heavy and awkward load. Not a pretty sight!
1 Accounting/bookkeeping
2 Production/service
3 Marketing/sales/advertising
These are living, dynamic parts of the business that need constant work. The work to do is never done. You do not reach a point in your business where the marketing is finished. If your business lasts 100 years then the marketing must be maintained. If you are growing and thriving it is because you are taking care of the three legs properly. It is a full time job… maintaining each leg of the business. Accounting cannot get done quickly to make time for production and marketing cannot wait for production to come online. Each leg is a small business of its own combined to form a sturdy stool that can support the weight of all relevant activities.
I want to share a personal experience that clearly shows the importance of this analogy: I learned this three leg idea in July 2013. I needed it in 2010 when I believed that we would market until we had 150 customers? Then we would have time for production? This sounds silly now but I was told by the USDA website under alternative agriculture and CSA model where it spelled it out clearly that this was the success of the CSAs. “Marketing is done so the farmer can then grow the crop”. I can now tell you that this is a lie! Marketing is never done!
“How do other farms do it then?” Well the successful ones keep their three legs maintained and healthy. They continually produce quality, take care of their customers, and most of them hire a book keeper to keep an eye on cash flow and the budget.
The best business models are ones that outsource two of the legs and then the farmer focuses on the third. Many non agricultural businesses outsource two of the three legs while focusing in with laser accuracy on the third, usually marketing or production. Why wouldn’t this work for agriculture? I think it would and it should! I didn’t do it with our farm because I didn’t know about it but now that I know I will never do it any other way. This would free me up to become a complete creative fool! I could make videos about my product, blog, have a crazy cool website. Everything I do could be twisted into marketing and think how fun that could be. Or if I found a great marketer to take on this role then I could focus on production making sure the crops were always ready on time, in abundance, fresh and zesty sweet, ready for peoples kitchens. The possibilities for success are tremendous.
The future is bright when our minds are free.
Great post William